News & Updates

The Social Cost of Carbon and Its Impact on Enviro Law January 30, 2018

“Though the number is not widely discussed, the SCC [Social Cost of Carbon] is a crucial metric in many environmental regulations directly related to climate change,” Goldberg Segalla's John A. Lee writes in Law 360. “[A]s such, the SCC has a major impact on how the United States regulates its greenhouse gas emissions.”

In his article, John, a partner in the firm's Global Insurance Services and Environmental Practice Groups, explains the “little-known number” and its effect on greenhouse gas emission regulations in the U.S. “[H]owever imperfectly calculated,” he writes, “the value assigned to the SCC indicates which parties the United States’ executive branch considers should bear the cost of the CO2 this nation releases. The cost of carbon release is not free, as is evident in an insurance industry bearing ever larger payouts due to the increasing effects of climate change. By reducing the calculated SCC, this administration is stating that those costs should be borne by future generations and societies outside our borders.”